DAN FLAVIN Homage to Vladimir Tatlin, from the Collection of Ileana Sonnabend and the Estate of Nina Castelli 1973

Historic provenance! From the collection of legendary art dealer Ileana Sonnabend - wife of Leo Castelli. Rarely to market, this classic Dan Flavin color silkscreen on rag paper [pencil signed and numbered from the limited edition of 300] was created in 1973 for the legendary "New York for Stockholm" portfolio. 

This is American Minimalist artist Dan Flavin's homage to Russian Avant Garde Constructivist artist Vladimir Tatlin, whose work has preoccupied Flavin for Decades. Depicted next to Flavin's portrait of Tatlin is the first of thirty–nine "monuments" to the Russian artist Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953) that Flavin created between 1964 and 1990. The stepped arrangement of white fluorescent tubes evokes Tatlin’s colossal Monument to the Third International (1920), a soaring tower intended to support Lenin’s Plan for Monumental Propaganda. Tatlin's ambitious but unrealized project to unite art and technology was of particular interest to Flavin. Although the utopian goals of the Russian Constructivists were never fulfilled, their art and philosophy were of great interest to artists of the 1960s. Never built, Tatlin’s monument became a symbol for ambitious yet unrealized utopian dreams. 

Other editions of this print are in the permanent collections of many major museums and public institutions worldwide, which is why they're not often to market, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Moderna Museet, the Walker Art Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Dayton Art Institute, the Frost Art Museum,the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Art, the Princeton University Art Museum, the Pierpoint Morgan Library, and the Albertina Museum, the Kempner Art Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - to name only a few.  Mint condition; never framed. Comes in the original portfolio sleeve of Cranes Bond extra No. 1. This is the first time it will be removed from the original mahogany portfolio box which housed the entire portfolio in the Sonnabend/Castelli collection. Many works from this portfolio are already in the permanent collections of most major museums and public institutions worldwide. Very rare, especially in such fine/original condition with this impressive provenance.  

SIGNATURE

Signed and numbered 158/300 on recto (front). Printed text verso states "Copyright 1973 by Dan Flavin Printed at Styria Studios". Original portfolio sleeve (rare together) also has the artist's name printed in block letters on Cranes Bond No. 1 paper.

PROVENANCE

Collection of Ileana Sonabend (wife of legendary dealer Leo Castelli, and pioneering art dealer in her own right) and the Estate of their daughter Nina Castelli Sundell.

EXHIBITION HISTORY

Leo Castelli exhibition of New York for Stockholm Portfolio to benefit Moderna Museet.

Other editions:

Walker Art Center Leo Castelli Gallery Brooklyn Museum Pop Impressions Europe/USA, Museum of Modern Art and literally dozens of other venues.